Kevin Durant follows up 54-point night with all-around effort against Kings

After scoring a career high 54 against Golden State on Friday night, Durant followed it up with 30 points and nine assists to lead Oklahoma City past Sacramento 108-93 on Sunday.

Kevin Durant has scored 84 points in his last two games for the Thunder. Alonzo Adams / AP

OKLAHOMA CITY // Sacramento coach Michael Malone said Kevin Durant wouldn’t score 54 points against his Kings like he did against Golden State two nights earlier.

Turns out, the alternative wasn’t any fun for Malone, either. Durant scored 30 points and embraced a role as a facilitator by finishing with nine assists to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder past Sacramento 108-93 on Sunday night.

“I told you Durant wasn’t going to get 54 tonight, right?” Malone said with a smile after the game.

Durant, coming off that career-high scoring effort on Friday, still shot 10-for-15 from the field on Sunday and scored at least 30 points for the seventh straight game. Serge Ibaka added 20 points and benefited of several of Durant’s passes.

“My teammates were setting screens for me,” Durant said. “We were seeing something in pick-and-roll. Serge was doing a great job of slipping out of it and knocking down shots. I was trying to be aggressive and put pressure on the rim and the defence and if they draw in, I kick it out and if not, I try to lay the ball in, take a good shot.”

Reggie Jackson added 16 points for the Thunder, who won their third straight. Oklahoma City scored 34 points off Sacramento’s 21 turnovers and had 20 second-chance points.

Oklahoma City improved to 8-5 without All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook since he had surgery on his right knee last month.

“They execute well and they do a great job of playing together, so all credit to them,” said Sacramento centre Cousins. “But at the same time, I think we did a terrible job defensively of guarding those guys tonight. We made it easy for them to run their sets. With that being said, that’s why they had the type of game they did.”

Isaiah Thomas scored a career-high 38 points for the Kings, but he slowed down in the second half as the Thunder pulled away.

“He got hot,” Durant said. “He hit a lot of 3s. He got to the foul line a lot. He was coming down, pulling up. I think our pick-and-roll defence was a lot better in the second half, making him drive a little more, forcing him to our bigs.”

Cousins had 16 points and 14 rebounds for Sacramento. Rudy Gay scored just six points for the Kings and was ejected after picking up two technical fouls in the fourth quarter.

The score was tied at 43 late in the second quarter before the Thunder went on a 12-4 run, highlighted by Durant’s lob to Ibaka for a two-handed jam.

The Thunder held the Kings to 6-for-17 shooting in the second quarter to take a 57-52 lead at the break. Thomas scored 27 points in the first half on 7-for-11 shooting.

Cousins made a layup early in the third quarter to tie the score at 60, but the Thunder responded with an 8-0 run, including four points by Jackson, to put Oklahoma City ahead and force the Kings to call a timeout.

Durant found Jackson a little later for a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 75-64 and force the Kings to call another timeout.

Durant hit a 3 from straight away to bump Oklahoma City’s lead to 87-70, and the Thunder led 89-74 at the end of the quarter.

Gay was called for two technicals for arguing with an official and was ejected with 10:01 remaining. The Thunder led 95-74 after the free throws.

“Rudy, obviously, I think he was frustrated with the way he was playing and he wound up getting thrown out of the game, which is unfortunate,” Malone said. “But tomorrow is another day. We’ll bounce back, we’ll work on some things, watch some film and we still have two games on this trip that we feel like we have a great chance to win.”

OTHER SUNDAY RESULTS

Spurs 110, Bucks 82

The San Antonio Spurs made easy work of the NBA’s worst team despite leading scorer Tony Parker sitting out with a leg injury.

Milwaukee led 16-14 in the first quarter but San Antonio (32-9) scored 15 consecutive points to end the quarter. Milwaukee (7-33) were never able to get back in the game.

Tim Duncan had 11 points and 13 rebounds, but Australian reserve guard Patty Mills led the Spurs with 20 points, which equalled a season high.

Guard Brandon Knight led the Bucks with 21 points. The Bucks have lost nine straight games.

Lakers 112, Raptors 106

Nick Young scored 24 of his 29 points in the second half and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Toronto Raptors for their second win in a row.

Pau Gasol added 22 points and had nine rebounds for the Lakers (16-25), while DeMar DeRozan led Toronto with 23 points and guard Kyle Lowry added 21 with nine assists for the Raptors (20-19).

Toronto scored 36 points in the first quarter and raced to a 19-point lead midway through the second. Los Angeles fought back by closing the half with a 23-8 run.

Magic 93, Celtics 91

Arron Afflalo had 20 points and 13 rebounds to help the Orlando Magic snap a 10-game losing streak by beating the Boston Celtics.

Glen Davis had 17 points, including nine in the final seven minutes, to spark the win. Magic (11-30) forward Tobias Harris had 18 points and hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to provide the margin of victory.

Jeff Green led the Celtics (14-28) with 22 points. Boston guard Rajon Rondo, in just his second game after returning from knee surgery, had six points and six assists in 21 minutes.

Suns 117, Nuggets 103

Channing Frye scored a season-high 30 points and the Phoenix Suns beat the Denver Nuggets for the third time in as many meetings this season.

Frye hit 12-of-16 shots from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range as the Suns moved three full games in front of the Nuggets in the battle for the final Western Conference play-off spot.

Markieff Morris added 16 points and guard Goran Dragic had 15 points and six assists for the Suns (23-17), who scored the first eight points on Sunday and led wire-to-wire.

Anthony Randolph had 19 points and Wilson Chandler, guard Evan Fournier and guard Ty Lawson had 17 points each for Denver, who fell back to .500 at 20-20 and have now lost three of the last four, all on the road.